Let us understand Turn Around of Indian Railways .

Rail passengers can now look forward to some comfort not only while travelling but also during the long wait at stations. Keeping in mind the demand for higher comfort while travelling on trains, the Railway Minister announced the introduction of an ‘Anubhuti’ coach with “modern facilities and excellent ambience” in select Shatabadi and Rajdhani trains at a “commensurate fare structure”.

Rail Tourism

Also, the Railways will extend the concept of ‘executive waiting lounges’ at the New Delhi Railway station to seven more stations — Agra, Nagpur, Jaipur, Bilaspur, Visakhapatnam, Patna, Bengaluru and Jaipur. Passengers in these cities can look forward to some luxury while waiting on stations. If exactly modelled on the lines of the executive lounge at the Delhi station, they will get buffet meals, snacks, soft beverages, recliners for short naps, access to Wi-Fi besides business facilities for a fee.

Indian Railways will also tie up with Jammu and Kashmir State officials to launch a multi-modal travel package for tourists to travel from Jammu through Udhampur, Qazigund to Srinagar through a common rail-bus ticket. Also, it is looking at the feasibility of issuing “yatri-parchee” (passenger slips) to pilgrims in co-ordination with the Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board, as it has commissioned a railway line till Katra.

Cleanliness, Hygiene

The Minister, referring to constant complaints about cleanliness and hygiene in trains and stations, said, “As a frequent rail-traveller, I have experienced this personally. Resource constraint cannot be a reason for subs-standard services.” Among the slew of measures announced for enhancing passenger amenities is identifying 104 stations that serve more than one million persons and upping the cleanliness quotient. Other initiatives will focus on extend mechanised cleaning facilities and on-board housekeeping schemes to more stations and trains. The Railways will also set up eight-10 mechanised laundries for quality washing of linen.

Rail Neer, Food

To increase availability of clean packaged water, the Railways will also invest in setting up six additional “Rail Neer” bottling plants at Vijayawada, Nagpur, Lalitpur, Bilaspur, Jaipur and Ahmedabad. Also, on the cards is upgrading 60 additional stations as “Adarsh Stations”. Efforts will also be made to include more facilities for announcements and electronic display boards on-board trains for information dissemination.

Passengers can also get lodge food-related complaints to the Centralised Catering Services Monitoring Cell on a toll-free number — 1800111321 — for real time solutions. For effective quality control of meals, Railways is also tying up with food testing laboratories and getting third party audits done, besides setting up state-of-the-art base kitchens in railway premises.